New releases on Mortality Tables
There's been a flurry of activity on the sound-inspired label recently, with strong work from Rupert Lally, Please Close Your Eyes and Jamie Lee
Rupert Lally - Interzones
Resuscitating an earlier (unreleased) solo album that didn't quite work, Rupert Lally roped in seven other artists to help bring his ideas to life. The eclectic result is a captivating excursion that truly crosses zones. More like a mixtape than an artist album, there's Pop elements juxtaposed with experimentation, vocals, both sampled and sung, accompanied by guitars and gentle electronics. It sounds like a hodge-podge but it really works.
Collaborations are meant to be like this. They should be additive, greater than the sum of their parts. This is the potentiality of the interzone, a place with imperceptible boundaries where freedoms might flourish.
Please Close Your Eyes - Music For Floating
Following his intriguing Nibiru / Heaven On The Fourth Floor EP from last year, Please Close Your Eyes, aka Oliver Richards, is back with Music For Floating, a six-track album that politely nods to Brian Eno's renowned Music For Airports, in both title and ambition. Richards wanted to make a Classical album that encourages listener liberation. He tested it in the bath and in bed, and the synthesised orchestral strings certainly lend themselves to a mental escape from the daily toil. The closing track in particular, The Time Before the Last, is a beauty.
Buy Please Close Your Eyes - Music For Floating
Jamie Lee - Circuits From Soft Frequencies
At nearly 20 minutes in length, the single track Circuits From Soft Frequencies is actually several tracks pieced together like the soundtrack to an arty short film. The experimental music comprises field recordings, captured around concrete sound mirrors in the South East of England, along with cymbals, bells, gongs and clocks (actually performed and recorded on site). The short gaps in between the ringing and shimmering noises help to switch the listener's perspective, gently provoking awareness. In saying that, like a hypnotic ritual, its irregular clangs are strangely calming.